The Mana World Forums

I played the game the last days and had some serious problems with the drop steal protection. I think the protection doesn't help players, it makes things much more worse. The reason is that strong players can always claim a monsters drop with 1 attack, even if they don't kill it or someone else was fighting it. Think of an archer who shots at random into a group of monsters and let the others finish it just to take all the stuff away or stumbles into a fight and finishs of the half dead monster. Now as a strong player you get rewarded with the loot and team xp (which is somewhat ironic).

The second problem is the time players have now to waste because they need to trade with other players if they want to distribute the loot. In the past the worst time stealer was a short text message, but most times players just knowed what they were allowed to take from the ground and what not. Now you have to remember what you took, what the others took and chitchat around and trade to distribute it fair. If you fought together for a longer time, you won't be able to remember anymore who got what.

There is also the thing it should have helped to prevent: drop stealing. But to date i can't remember many times a drop stealer was fast enough to take my loot. And the talk about pickpocket or other trolls seems just like some hysteria to me.

I think drop steal prevention makes only sense if the game has ways to to minimize accidental drop steal and makes real drop stealing much harder (yes, I think drop stealing should be part of the game, because it is a kind of player interaction). Right now, it is just frustrating, because it only benefits strong players and makes fighting in places with strong monsters just unrewarding (especially in the mine).

postalworker wrote:I played the game the last days and had some serious problems with the drop steal protection. I think the protection doesn't help players, it makes things much more worse. The reason is that strong players can always claim a monsters drop with 1 attack, even if they don't kill it or someone else was fighting it.

The problem is not drop stealing then, but kill stealing! If a high up level is leveling somewhere, you might consider being gracious and just move to another area instead of "racing" him for a kill. Also I think with the new cave at hurnscald, this problem should diminish a lot, since there's more room for players to level.

The second problem is the time players have now to waste because they need to trade with other players if they want to distribute the loot. In the past the worst time stealer was a short text message, but most times players just knowed what they were allowed to take from the ground and what not. Now you have to remember what you took, what the others took and chitchat around and trade to distribute it fair. If you fought together for a longer time, you won't be able to remember anymore who got what.

When the option to form groups will be well implemented, we could simply turn the drop-steal protection off for people in the same group/team.

There is also the thing it should have helped to prevent: drop stealing. But to date i can't remember many times a drop stealer was fast enough to take my loot. And the talk about pickpocket or other trolls seems just like some hysteria to me.

Well then you're lucky because you were fast enough. Many other players did fall victim quite often from dropstealers. And not just maggot slimes and buglegs, but iron ores, snake skins and jeans.

I think drop steal prevention makes only sense if the game has ways to to minimize accidental drop steal and makes real drop stealing much harder

That looks almost impossible to implement how exactly would you allow intentional dropsteal and disallow accidental dropsteal?

(yes, I think drop stealing should be part of the game, because it is a kind of player interaction). Right now, it is just frustrating, because it only benefits strong players and makes fighting in places with strong monsters just unrewarding (especially in the mine).

I disagree, a game should be about having fun. Therefor we should avoid the ability of one person ruining the fun for everyone else. Yes, I don't consider having that rare drop stolen by some lazy ass who doesn't want to hunt for it himself as "fun".

5t3v3 wrote:

(yes, I think drop stealing should be part of the game, because it is a kind of player interaction). Right now, it is just frustrating, because it only benefits strong players and makes fighting in places with strong monsters just unrewarding (especially in the mine).

I disagree, a game should be about having fun. Therefor we should avoid the ability of one person ruining the fun for everyone else. Yes, I don't consider having that rare drop stolen by some lazy ass who doesn't want to hunt for it himself as "fun".

+1, seriously, drop stealing isn't fun for anyone. Maybe we should add a "Team drop" counter where if you did >= 1/3 of the damage, you get a chance to take the drop.

5t3v3 wrote: Also I think with the new cave at hurnscald, this problem should diminish a lot, since there's more room for players to level.

Is this cave implemented yet? I would be glad to get a little hint how to get there...

As for the dropstealing:

I experienced a lot of dropsteal the last days. And i dont think it should be taken as player interaction because it is not. For example in the desert cave (mine), some lower level chars are running around me stealing the drops. I cannot be quicker since you get stunned / cannot move when standing in the middle of a large group of enemies (5 or more).

A better player interaction imho would be when the lower levels would just kindly ask if i can help them out with something. Im not unwiiling to give! I like to give and help out, but i dont like people comming and just stealing the drops. And it is even much worse with valuable drops like iron ore etc...

Having experienced this, i take the dropstealing protection is turned off right now? Is there any news about the topic? Will it be re-enabled soon?

regards
mandrake

The dropsteal isn't off, but the protection is just raised down to a ridiculous 3 seconds or something.

BTW, yes this new cave is already accessible! You can enter it from the cave where the cavesnakes are (the ones with lamps that drop jeans) or simply go to the basement of the Hurnscald inn.

Also second that helping interaction. you are not the only one willing to help others. this game has the most helpfull community out of all MMORGPs! I think that's a valuable asset we should attempt to protect (by for example increasing the drop-protection timeout to 8seconds or so again).

OK, it will be fixed.

Regards.